Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

CALIFORNIA: COMMITTEE BACKS INCREASED FUNDING FOR DISABLED

A state Senate budget committee approved Monday "spending more than $12 million to help improve monitoring the health of developmentally disabled persons released from state institutions into community homes," SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE reports. Gov. Pete Wilson (R) "has been criticized for transferring 2,200 developmentally disabled persons" from state institutions to community homes by mental health advocates who charge that many patients have ended up in locations providing "substandard medical care" and are staffed by "untrained, minimum-wage staff." Critics cite research by the University of California at Riverside which found that "death rates for comparable patients were higher in the community than in the institutions" and several studies that found that those in "group homes" were substantially more likely to be sedated. The Wilson administration was also criticized for its work tracking "persons moved to community homes." RECOMMENDATIONS: The committee recommended that Gov. Wilson "create a directory of county-by-county medical and dental services for the developmentally disabled" and earmarked $6.1 million for that purpose. Additionally, the committee "voted to make it easier for the department to transfer a person back to a state institution from a community-based home" and recommended that the state spend $5.5 million to monitor community homes quarterly, rather than semi-annually. The committee also "appropriated funds to speed up the department's cataloging of the medical condition and status of people transferred to community homes" (Lucas/Lempinen, 4/1).

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